Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Solar enterprises will each be faced with the occasional surplus or lack of solar modules in their lifetimes. In these instances, it is useful to adjust these stock levels at short notice, thus creating a spot market. Spot markets serve the short-term trade of different products, where the seller is able to permanently or temporarily offset surplus, while buyers are able to access attractive offers on surplus stocks and supplement existing supply arrangements as a last resort.

Until recently, Solyndra had been one of the stealthiest thin-film photovoltaics operators, its glistening, prominently logoed headquarters building reminding tech-savvy commuters plowing up and down the I-880 corridor near Fremont, CA, of how little they knew about the company. But Solyndra has finally let the sunshine in and come out of the closet – even if it hasn’t quite changed some of its stealthy ways.

This paper presents a detailed assessment of the value of photovoltaic energy within the German energy supply structure, taking into account the correlation between actual consumption and local power generation. Contrary to previous statistical approaches, this paper takes a new dynamic approach, modelling the dynamic behaviour of the PV power generation as a one-year time series.

Apart from some obstacles and bureaucratic hindrances, the Italian PV market has recently joined the upper echelons of the solar industry. Along with small and medium-sized systems, the commercial and large-scale segment in particular has a great deal of promise.

Anyone familiar with the PV industry can attest to the remarkably accelerated pace of innovation aimed towards generating solar power more cost effectively relative to conventional means. Many of high-technology’s best minds are bringing expertise in materials, manufacturing process, and electronics to tackle the challenge. The resultant gains in cost effective manufacturing, silicon availability and greater irradiance conversion efficiency will make continuous and sustainable impact to cost per kW generated.

In the perpetual struggle to reduce the costs associated with PV energy generation, one aspect of the manufacturing process has potential to shine. To date, the PV sector is dominated by crystalline silicon wafers (90%), which largely use silver as the conducting medium for the front side grid, and to a lesser extent the backside contact. The conducting media are crucial to the overall efficiency of the cell by providing the means for current to flow when sunlight strikes the doped silicon wafer.

A new wafer technology, named CDS (Crystallization on Dipped Substrate), is under development and has been found to be effective in the reduction of wafer cost and silicon feedstock. CDS technology was applied to 156mm × 156mm sized wafers, obtained via the throughput of 1825cm²/min, and the resulting cell efficiency of 14.8% was confirmed.

The continued tight supply and high cost of polysilicon, coinciding with the growth in demand for solar energy, has been a key catalyst for the rapid adoption of thin-film technologies in the last two years. Although the technology has been in development for over 15 years, it is only now that thin film has emerged as a viable low cost-per-watt alternative to conventional crystalline silicon cells.

Standards have traditionally been used in other industries, especially semiconductor, to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. This article will illustrate these efforts, as well as acting as a call for participation to become involved in SEMI’s standardization developments for PV. Four active task forces have been initiated to tackle these muchneeded standards for the PV industry, namely, the Analytical Test Methods Task Force; the PV Equipment Interface Specification Task Force; the PV Gases and Chemical Purity Task Force; and the PV Facilities Task Force.

Three buzzwords dominate the discussion about the future of the photovoltaic market in the U.S. right now: ITC (investment tax credit), credit crunch, and Obama. All three have the potential to shape how the solar industry will look in the next decades.